This weekend a good friend from University is getting married, so I’m taking a short break from blogging to celebrate – I’ll be back next week.
Have a great weekend!
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I’m taking a short blogging break…
Author: Jackie
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The Complete Booker 2010 Challenge
The Complete Booker originated in August, 2007 to bring together book lovers and bloggers interested in reading winners of The Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
This year the blog is hosting a challenge – it runs from January 1 – December 31, 2010.
There are several levels of participation:
Winners Circle: read at least 6 winners
Contender: read at least 6 short listed nominees
Longshot: read at least 6 long listed nominees
Booker Devotee: choose a year, and read all 6 shortlisted works from that year
Booker Fanatic: choose a year, and read all 13 long- and shortlisted works from that year
I love the Booker prize and so I am going to try to be an over-achiever for this challenge. I plan to complete all the levels of participation!
I am going to read all 13 books longlisted for the prize in 2010 and will hopefully manage to strike off the other levels at the same time. It is going to be a challenge, but hopefully one I’ll manage.
Here is my list of the Bookers I’ve read so far.
Are there any years you’d prefer me to complete?
Which is your favourite Booker book?
Winner of the 1997 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book, Shortlisted for the 1997 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, Shortlisted for the 1996 Giller Prize
Fall on Your Knees is a long, complex story about 4 sisters living on Cape Breton Island in Canada. The sisters’ parents regret their marriage, as Materia was just a child when she married James. They are clearly mis-matched and Materia struggles to cope with being removed from her Lebanese family. The book begins in 1898 and follows the family as they deal with secrets, betrayal and tragedy.
It took me a long time to read this 560 page epic, but it was worth the effort. I loved the sisters and the complex relationships between them. All the characters were well developed, flawed and steeped with intrigue. I admit that I became confused on several occasions and had to re-read sections in order to understand what was happening. This was due to the fact that the book switched between several narrators and jumped forward and back in time, with no indication of who I was now reading about. I think that this confusion was key to the plot though – not knowing who was speaking at several points helped to maintain the secrets and meant the reader had a more interesting mystery to solve.
The atmosphere of the book was excellent. It had the feel of a Gothic novel, but the Canadian setting made it different from anything I’ve read before. The writing was of a very high standard, so I’m not surprised that it received so much recognition from the world’s book awards.
I must warn you that this book deals with some difficult subject matters: paedophilia, incest and rape are all present in this book along with discussions on religion and war. I thought it was all handled sensitively though, showing the shocking truth about what occurs in society, without sensationalising it.
Fall on Your Knees had me gripped throughout. I am very impressed with Ann-Marie MacDonald’s writing and will try to get hold of all her other books as soon as possible.
Highly recommended to anyone with the patience to understand what is happening!
Have you read anything by Ann-Marie MacDonald?
Which is your favourite?
Claire: Thank you for lending me your copy of this book!
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a modern classic which has added an impressive number of words to our language. Big Brother and Room 101 are two such words, but it is the ideas and impressively accurate prediction of the future that makes this book so special for me.
The book was first published in 1949 and gives a grim prediction of what the future will be like 50 years on. It describes a totalitarian régime in a world dominated by war and fear.
I first read (and studied) Nineteen Eighty-Four at school, but re-read it recently for my book group. I remember loving the book as a teenager; being impressed by the number and ingenuity of ideas present. There were so many different themes to discuss that it made the perfect book to study.
Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy re-reading it. I remembered the basic plot and a large number of the ideas from my teenage years, but although it was easy to read, I found it quite dull. The pace of the book was slow and I found myself becoming bogged down in the political descriptions. The book-within-the-book was a particular low point, with every word being a struggle to complete.
Some scenes were beautiful, but overall it was a dark, depressing book. The ending is shocking and I still remember it clearly, 17 years after first reading it – the sign of a powerful book.
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic, which deserves to be read and admired, but re-reading it in adulthood threw up more flaws than genius for me.
Have you read Nineteen Eighty-Four?
Did you enjoy it?
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November Summary and Plans for December
I read 12 books in November, but unfortunately I enjoyed this month’s selection less than previous ones. My favourite was The Help byKathryn Stockett, which made it onto my list of The Best Books of 2009.
My favourite this month
Books reviewed during November
Norwegian Wood – Haruki Murakami
The Nutmeg Tree – Margery Sharp
Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi (Book and Film)
Equator – Miguel Sousa Tavares
Perdido Street Station – China Miéville 
Stalking Richard & Judy – Valentine Honeyman
The Turn of the Screw – Henry James
The Brutal Telling – Louise Penny 
Outlander (Cross Stitch) – Diana Gabaldon 
The Blind Owl – Sadegh Hedayat
The Magicians – Lev Grossman 
(DNF)
Plans for December
I have several books lined up to read in December.
Here are the ones I hope to finish next month:
- The Mosquito Coast – Paul Theroux
- The Woman in the Dunes – Kobo Abe
- An Equal Stillness – Francesca Kay
- Grotesque – Natsuo Kirino
- Tender Morsels – Margo Lanagan
- A Redbird Christmas – Fannie Flagg
- Something’s Wrong – Sam Smith
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson
- Snow – Orhan Pamuk
- Right to Die – Hazel McHaffie
Have you read any of the books I plan to read?
I hope that you had a great November and I look forward to sharing more book discussions with you in December!
The Brutal Telling‘); ?> is set in a remote, artistic community surrounded by the forests of Quebec. The book begins with the discovery of an unknown hermit’s body in the town’s bistro. Chief Inspector Gamache is called in to investigate the crime, in this, the fifth book in the series.
I haven’t read any books written by Loiuse Penny before, but I am always on the look out for a great new crime series to follow. Unfortunately this book failed to live up to my expectations.
The pace of the book was very fast, as a high percentage of it was dialogue. I wanted to know what the characters were thinking and feeling, but instead I only witnessed a string of events.
I found the writing to be quite passive and the characters failed to engage me. My problem in connecting with the characters could be due to the fact that this is the fifth in the series, but I was assured that this book would work as a stand alone novel, and many other people have enjoyed it with out having read the first four books.
The title implies that this will be a very dark novel, but it felt more like a cozy mystery to me, with very little menace. The plot itself was quite basic and lacked the cunning twists and turns that I love in crime fiction. I guessed the murderer quite early on and was disappointed to discover that I was correct.
The writing was of a high standard and there were many good sections in the book, but overall it failed to impress me.
Recommended to people who enjoy fast paced, simple cozy mysteries.
I seem to be one of the only people who didn’t enjoy with this book though: Kittling Books, Ms Bookish and Bibliophile by the Sea all loved it.
Did you enjoy The Brutal Telling?
Have you read any of Louise Penny’s other books?